With the increased portability of computers, and the increasing sophistication of mobile devices such as mobile telephones and tablet computers, there is a growing demand for connectivity while on the move allowing, for example, connection with other devices, and with the Internet. One response to this demand is based upon devices having built-in long-range telecommunications capabilities, such as devices which make use of mobile telephone networks. While such solutions can be effective, they typically suffer from problems of low bandwidth and incomplete geographic coverage. The problem of low bandwidth is a particular issue when a user wishes to access content comprising a large quantity of data, and in particular time dependent data, where time dependent data is data which must arrive within a certain short timeframe to be valid, e.g. a stream of live TV media. The problem of incomplete geographic coverage is particularly problematic when a user is moving, given that data communication may be interrupted when a signal is lost (for example when a train on which the user is on enters a tunnel).
Typically, when a user wishes to consume streaming media data, such as a live TV broadcast, the user will initiate a media session on an application on their user device, such as a mobile phone. The application will then receive media data relating to the media session from a media server, for example. Very short delays and interruptions (in the order of a few seconds) in the delivery of the media data can be handled by existing technology. However, longer communications outages, which are likely when the user is on a moving vehicle, requires a solution which provides more advanced management of the media session.